Wednesday, May 3, 2017

I once commented to an artist
friend that when I dash off a quick sketch of something in order to do a more
careful drawing later, I tend to prefer the sketch to the later drawing. “That’s
because you’re overthinking it,” she said.

I have a pretty good feeling
that is the reason why I have often struggled to maintain a daily drawing
practice. Even though I have plenty of available time, I have trouble sitting
down to just draw. It's not that I think that drawing in itself isn't a
worthwhile use of my time, it's just that drawing by itself isn’t quite
enough to occupy my brain, to keep it from paying too much attention to the act
of drawing. It’s like I end up micromanaging myself, if that can be a thing.

Politics podcast from FiveThirtyEight

In a seemingly unrelated
development, I recently discovered podcasts. It started with the website
FiveThirtyEight.com, which I became a little obsessed with during the election.
I found their nerdy analytical take on polls and their other quantitative ways
of looking at politics to be strangely calming. And I still do. (That’s not to
say that their podcasts, or website articles, are dry or ponderous. Quite the
contrary, it’s all quite lively and engaging, in a rational sort of way.)

So I started listening to
their regular podcasts, including a topical chat about recent events in politics, which are aired every Monday, and a few others of a nonpolitical nature.

We the People podcast from the National Constitution Center

But, like most people, I don’t
like to just sit and listen to a podcast, or the radio for that matter. I want
to do something while I’m listening. I know that many people will listen to
something when they go out for a walk or a jog, but when I go for a walk, I
prefer to listen to the birds and other sounds all around me, so that doesn’t
work for me. I do listen to MPR News when I’m running errands in the car, just
not at home.

Can He Do That? by the Washington Post, and The Daily by the New York Times

You see where this is going,
right? Here’s what I discovered: When I draw, paint, doodle, or engage in similar
art activities while listening to podcasts, my overthinking brain gets out of
the way and my artmaking flows more freely. Sometimes my sketches have random notes jotted all around them, as well, which you may have noticed.

It’s not really multitasking,
it’s more like a happy melding of symbiotic activities.

Listening to Politics and More, from the New Yorker, and The Global Politico, from Politico, while making mini notebook ledgers

I’ve named some other
podcasts that I listen to in the captions to the photos I've included here (and in the notes jotted among my doodles and sketches). These are all
ones that I find engaging and informative without hyperbole or partisan rancor—because
teeth-gnashing is not compatible with artmaking, in my opinion. (You can find
any of them by searching the name in your preferred podcast platform. I use a
podcast app on my iPad.)

And I don’t abruptly stop
whatever I’m working on when the podcasts end, whether it’s an actual project,
like making a journal, or just idle drawing and doodling. At that point, I’ll
usually switch to classical music until I’m ready to stop.